Time vs Frequency Domain Analysis for Large Automotive Systems

It has been recognised since the 1960's that the frequency domain method for structural analysis offers superior qualitative information about structural response (refs 1, 2, 3, 4); But computational and technological issues have held back the implementation for fatigue calculation until now. Recent technological developments (see refs 5, 6, 7, 8, 9) have now enabled the practical implementation of the frequency domain approach and this paper will focus on the accuracy of the approach when compared with the traditional time based (transient dynamic) approach.